Samboja Lestari is a Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) rescue and rehabilitation centre, tropical rainforest restoration project, sun bear sanctuary, and eco-lodge located in the town of Samboja in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, owned and operated by the Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation. According to its founder, Willie Smits, Samboja Lestari uses the principles of People, Planet, Profit, attempting to provide incomes for local people using conservation. It is located about 38 kilometres from East Kalimantan's biggest city, Balikpapan. The project covers about of previously deforested land. In 2001, the BOS Foundation began purchasing land near Samboja that, like much of the deforested land in Borneo, was covered in alang-alang grass (Imperata cylindrica). The name Samboja Lestari roughly translates as the 'Samboja Forever'. Reforestation and orangutan rehabilitation are at the core of this project, which is considered controversial because it is more expensive to replant a forest instead of just protecting remaining forest. According to the BOS Foundation, by 2006 over 740 different tree species had been planted; by 2009 there were 1200 species of trees, 137 species of birds and six species of non-human primates. History of Samboja The small town of Samboja was founded about a century ago in what was then rainforest when oil was discovered in the area. The first drilling began in 1897 near Balikpapan Bay. Dutch oil workers moved into the area to work for a company that was later taken over by Royal Dutch Shell and later still by the national Indonesian oil company Pertamina. The oil company began cutting wood in the 1950s and as people came flooding into the booming oil town of Balikpapan they cleared the surrounding forest. With the pronounced El Niño of 1982 and 1983 there were fires in the area, destroying the pockets of forest that remained. According to Smits' 2009 TED talk Samboja in 2002 was the poorest district of East Kalimantan, with 50% of the population unemployed and a high crime rate. Almost a quarter of average income went on buying drinking water. The land was covered with alang-alang grass (Imperata cylindrica), putting it at high risk for repeated forest and land fires. There were many nutrition and hygiene related health problems and life expectancy was low, with high infant and maternal mortality. Following the purchase of about of grassland within the region by the BOS Foundation in 2001, continued replanting, land management, and fire prevention and